[TenTec] 2.037J Speech Processor

[Ron Castro]

This was the fix we were waiting for to get the Speech Processor working right.  I did some tests using an old Collins 302C-3 watt meter which has relatively slow meter ballistics.  I yanked the bass out of my audio by setting the EQplus bass control to 0.  With no processing and 1500 watts PEP out, the average peaks shown on the 302C-3 were around 30 Watts.  Progressively increasing the SP from 1 to 9 increased the average peaks up to 200 Watts.  By comparison, my trusty old Alpha Vomax pushed the average peaks to about 175-200. 

The O2's SP did introduce some distortion at the highest settings, but an amount that one would expect from that level of processing.  There was no inordinate increase in background noise that plagued earlier versions. 

It should be noted that results are highly dependent on how much audio is used to drive the radio, so for instance if someone reports distortion at setting 5, someone else may notice very little all the way to 8 or 9, while others may notice it at 3 or 4.  

As with any aggressive speech processor, bass will cause distortion, so pull out the bass and boost the treble with the internal EQ or an external one, and/or use a mic like the Heil HC 4 or 5.  Although I haven't tested it, an HC mic element with the EQ set to 0 or a few dB to the minus should work very well in contest or DX pileup.  Setting the low frequency roll-off to 300 Hz will work also.

Ron N6AHA